Here's my last map, the Sultanate of Sharessan, a personnal project done with Photoshop. My main goal was to create a fantasy map in an arabic/middle east ambience.
I also wanted to experiment some new kind of work and used some shaded relief art made by the CIA between 60's and 90's (then donated to the Library of Congress) for the mountains. I mixed some of them a bit, playing with several layers and different blending modes and with color/saturation/vibrance adjustments on each of the layers on my background to obtain the kind of color/feeling I wanted to get.
I've made the nomadic tribes shields in PS, being inspired by the Tuareg/Niger crosses that I like much.

WIP thread is here (http://www.cartographersguild.com/regional-world-mapping/22740-wip-sultanate-sharessan-fantasy-map.html). Thanks to all of those who supported and gave handy advices during the process. (Unfortunately, first WIP thread was made during the server issues so the first steps are missing due to the rollback).

Original map is 7931x5551 px, uploaded one is 50% size (hence rivers labels aren't very legible)

Comments are welcome, I hope you'll like it!

Feel free to rate, rep or run away :)

53215

emillanjr

04-02-2013, 09:57 AM

Great work, I think the mountains came out amazing!

vorropohaiah

04-02-2013, 09:58 AM

nice cartouche, though the background looks a bit too obviously-digital (not that that's a complaint). also, the area keys could do with being a bit starker against the map -a s they are they're quite difficult to make out at a distance, partiuclarly the capital. took me ages to find (could just be me though...)

very very nice map, and in a style we dont normally see here, which makes it all the better. I'd love to see something like this covering a larger area, like a continent, with varied terrain (would be nice what you can come up with for forests to match the style of this map). I was thinking of doing a historical regional map for a region of my world that fits in with this flavour and might try something with a similar border - imitation is the best form of flattery after all :)

EDIT: sorry, cant give you any rep quite yep... youre just too good!

- Max -

04-02-2013, 11:17 AM

Thanks :) This one was kind of an experiment with the shaded relief and I'll probably give it another shot on a larger area one of these days.

Eilathen

04-02-2013, 12:09 PM

A real beauty. I especially love the compass-rose.

I can't rep you atm, so have a "like" instead :D

arsheesh

04-02-2013, 02:36 PM

The relief shading is beautiful, the color scheme is as well, you've done a great job on the labels and I really like the tribal shields too. To sum up, fantastic job! You seem to be producing fine work at a speed which outpaces my ability to rep you :D.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

Diamond

04-02-2013, 04:54 PM

Like everyone else I have to spread some love first before I can rep you, but its there in spirit.

The only thing I can say about this map is... magnificent. This one deserves a Featured Map Scroll in my opinion.

aquarits

04-02-2013, 06:46 PM

I said in your WIP what i liked in your map, usualy desert looks out of some details, giving a impression of empty, But this one, looks full of details ( tnx to the nice mountains and the highlights in the reliefs).
Need to undestand how you always find a way to show that amount of water!!!

Congratz brow!

- Max -

04-03-2013, 08:46 AM

Thanks guys, comments much appreciated, I'm glad you liked it! And don't worry about the rep, hopefully you'll spread me some on the next map :D I promise I'll wait a few days before posting another one ;)

CaptainSputnik

04-03-2013, 11:36 AM

I really love this colour palette. The font and symbols also work very well with the map. Beautiful :D !

- Max -

04-04-2013, 03:23 AM

Thanks Captain! Finding the right fonts was a little part of a challenge, since I wanted to get something that match the ambience without being too caricatural.

Will Brawner

04-06-2013, 05:38 PM

Outstanding once again Max! I don't see many maps with this Ancient Middle Eastern feel, but you did an excellent job. I love how each of your maps has its own original style. Keep it up.

gentr1

04-08-2013, 07:37 AM

Beautiful design... Somehow, I would have liked to learn more about each tribe through the map... Perhaps one tribe has a type of attack unit, or architectural style... It probably would give a greater sense of identity if you could differentiate parts of the map by adding more tribal characteristic traits into it...

- Max -

04-08-2013, 08:27 AM

Thanks guys :) Adding more informations about the tribes could have been cool yea but it would maybe overcrow the map. The purpose was to locate the usual areas where the nomadic tribes live and move, nothing more.

Bogie

04-08-2013, 05:51 PM

Excellent map Max! Love the colors & textures. I am in the same boat as the others who can't rep you again so soon. Well deserved though.

- Max -

04-08-2013, 05:59 PM

Thanks you very much Bogie, I'm glad you like it - and no problem for the rep :)

foremost

04-10-2013, 07:56 AM

I'd rep you but I don't have any rep power yet!

As others have mentioned, the colors on this map are exceptional. The border is really nice as well. In fact, I could list everything that works about this map, but that'd take a while and it's been covered mostly by everyone else.

-foremost

- Max -

04-12-2013, 04:03 AM

Thanks very much Foremost, comment appreciated :)

maurped

04-15-2013, 10:05 AM

thank you for a map of the east is too rare

- Max -

04-15-2013, 12:27 PM

Thanks Maurped! Check out the current challenge map of Vorropohaiah, you' ll probably like the ambience aswell ;)

Havercakes24

05-09-2013, 02:45 AM

Absolutely beautiful map dude! I love the feel of it, great work on the mountains.